Bank execs should hand back bonuses: Labor

Bank chief executives and board members should hand back the huge bonuses they made from ripping Australians off, Bill Shorten says.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he's already changed the rules to stop bank executives getting massive bonuses, while Mr Shorten did nothing when he was responsible for financial services.

Labor has run a series of meetings with banking victims around the country and heard from families who had been torn apart when banks sold their homes.

"It's not enough for banks to come to parliament and say sorry. They've got to show that they mean their apology," Mr Shorten told reporters in Melbourne on Friday.

"I think that some of the senior executives who have made a lot of money as a result in part of business models which exploit the misery of ordinary Aussies over the past few years, should consider handing back some of the money they've made."

Mr Shorten said fines for banking misbehaviour were more like "speeding tickets", so bankers needed to dip into their own pockets.

"They should pay where it hurts the most," he said.

"You steal from the banks you go to jail, but if they steal from you they get a bonus," he said.

Mr Morrison said he had to twist Labor's arm to vote for the banking executive accountability regime, which allows regulators to claw back bonuses.

"All these cases that you're hearing about it, they were happening when Bill Shorten was the financial services minister," Mr Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

"Did he introduce tougher rules to deal with banking executives? No. He's a lion in opposition and a mouse when he's in government."

Mr Shorten also said banks had conflicts of interest given they have so many financial products, including superannuation.

Mr Morrison said the Labor leader was trying to help out union super funds at the expense of private funds.